An example of a treatment workflow using guided surgery methods for the installation of oral implants in a patient is provided:                1. The dentist examines the patient and may acquire an X-ray image or scan of the patient's oral situation.        2. An impression of the oral situation is taken and used to produce a plaster model of the patient's jawbone and teeth.        3. A teeth setup, modeling the position, size and shape of a desired prosthesis, is created on the plaster model and then fitted to the patient. It is then adjusted and optimized to match the patient's oral situation and clinical needs.        4. Based on the teeth setup, a radiographic guide is produced. The radiographic guide contains radio-opaque markers and is configured to be fitted to the patient. A bite index is also created, which fits between the radiographic guide and the opposing jaw of the patient, holding the radiographic guide in the mouth of the patient in the correct position.        5. A double-scan procedure is then used to image the patient's oral situation. The patient is scanned first with the radiographic guide and bite index in position using a CT scanner. The radiographic guide is then scanned alone. From the first scan, a computer model of the patient is generated. From the second scan, a computer model of the radiographic guide is generated. Both models are then aligned to one another using the landmarks in the CT data resulting from the radio-opaque markers. This allows a detailed representation of the patient's oral situation to be provided on a computer, including soft tissue surface contours (i.e. intaglio surface of radiographic guide), alongside CT data showing bone and nerve structures.        6. The position and orientation of the implants is planned using the computer representation (comprising the surface detail and CT data) of the patient's oral situation. Similarly, the position of any required anchor pins is also planned at this stage.        7. A dental splint (also known, in this case, as a surgical template) is produced having the same shape as the radiographic guide, but containing drill holes at the position of the planned implants and anchor pins. Each drill hole is provided with a metal sleeve.        8. The dental splint is placed in the patient's mouth and used to guide the drilling and the placement of the dental implants in the patient's jawbone.        
There are several known problems with this treatment workflow.
Firstly, in order to produce the surgical template, a radiographic guide must be produced first. The production of a radiographic guide is usually not done by the surgeon himself, but by a lab specializing in the production of dental components. This makes the treatment workflow more complex and slower due to transportation. The production of the radiographic guide is also time consuming and expensive.
Secondly, as the patient has usually already been scanned at an early stage (see step 1 above), the scan with the radiographic guide further raises the radiation dose of the patient. Furthermore, if the radiographic guide is not fitted correctly to the patient during the scanning procedure, a rescan must be performed, further increasing the radiation dose.
Although the oral surgeon may choose to avoid these extra expenses and complications by installing the implants in a conventional way without the use of a computer modeling and planning, the improved accuracy and predictability of the modern treatment workflow is lost. In reality, few surgeons are likely to choose this option.
Therefore, what is needed is a modern treatment workflow for producing a dental splint for guided oral surgery or other uses which avoids the need for a radiographic guide.